Centre for Leadership and Academic Innovation

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To support your teaching, the College offers training on instructional strategies and educational technology integration.

Procedure

Welcome to Collège Boréal!

We’re excited to have you on board and confident your time with us will be rewarding. Follow this step-by-step guide for a smooth start to your teaching journey.

Support and Training

To support your teaching, the College offers training on instructional strategies and educational technology integration.

Click the button below to access the training calendar.

Workshops and Training

Brightspace

Training

Brightspace 101 – Quick Start Guide

Prerequisite: None
Objectives:

  • Connect to Brightspace for the first time
  • Create your faculty profile
  • Navigate the home page and navigation bar
  • Import existing content into a course
  • Access additional resources

Target Audience: Faculty using Brightspace for the first time
Link: Brightspace 101 – Quick Start Guide (PDF)


Respondus Lockdown Browser

IMPORTANT: This tool is used exclusively for Brightspace quizzes.

Description: LockDown Browser is a secure browser designed to prevent cheating during Brightspace online exams. Its companion application, Respondus Monitor, enhances surveillance in unsupervised environments. Students must use their own computer with a standard webcam to record their assessment session.

Training includes:

  • Student perspective: Use of applications
  • Faculty perspective: Monitoring data, exam priorities, time management, and timelines
  • Best practices and tips for optimal use

Helpful Links:

Brightspace – Getting Off to a Good Start

Prerequisite: Brightspace 101 – Quick Start Guide
Objectives:

  • Navigate Brightspace more easily
  • Locate and use key course elements
  • Share information and documents at the beginning of a session

Target Audience: Faculty learning about Brightspace


Brightspace Jobs – Processing Submissions

Prerequisite: Brightspace 101 – Quick Start Guide
Objectives:

  • Provide feedback to students
  • Assess performance using rubrics
  • Post grades

Target Audience: Faculty aiming to make the most of the “Assignments” tool.

Zoom

Training

Zoom 1 – Basic Functions

Prerequisite: None
Objectives:

  • Access your Zoom account
  • Create a meeting and share the link
  • Start a meeting and configure audio and video
  • Explore the facilitator interface and basic settings
  • Create breakout rooms
  • Share recordings

Target Audience: Faculty using Zoom for the first time


Zoom 2 – Advanced Features

Prerequisite: Zoom 1 – Basic Functions
Objectives:

  • Use advanced options to enhance teaching
  • Create and manage breakout rooms
  • Conduct polls
  • Set up waiting rooms
  • Use the whiteboard

Target Audience: Faculty interested in advanced Zoom features

Classroom Management and Planning

Training

Surviving Your First Course – Part 1

Prerequisite: Brightspace 101 – Quick Start Guide
Objectives:

  • Discover the essentials for getting off to a good start
  • Develop a course outline
  • Plan a course
  • Use learning and assessment tools

Target audience: New part-time faculty


Surviving Your First Course – Part 2

Prerequisite: Surviving Your First Course – Part 1
Objectives:

  • Interpret and use a course outline
  • Explore coaching and interaction strategies
  • Select the most appropriate tools for your teaching context

Target Audience: New part-time faculty

Workshops

Promoting Student Engagement

Prerequisite: Surviving Your First Course
Objectives:

  • Plan engagement strategies
  • Explore interactive tools that enhance learning
  • Apply best practices to foster classroom participation

Target Audience: Faculty seeking to promote student participation

Videoconference

Workshops

Setting Up an Educational Videoconference

Objectives:

  • Test key technological functions
  • Plan strategies for a smooth session
  • Share relevant instructional practices

Target Audience: Faculty using videoconferencing for teaching

Inclusion and Diversity

Workshops

Recognizing the Diversity of International Students

Objectives:

  • Identify challenges faced by international students
  • Promote intercultural awareness and effective communication
  • Implement strategies that support inclusion and engagement

Target Audience: Faculty seeking to promote diversity

Instructional Content and Assessment

Workshops

Using Content Developed by CLIP

Prerequisite: Surviving Your First Course – Parts 1 and 2 (new faculty only)
Objectives:

  • Understand and adapt content designed for various teaching modes
  • Develop engaging strategies for course facilitation

Target Audience: Faculty teaching courses developed by CLIP


Transforming Assessment: The Impact of Generative AI

Objectives:

  • Explore the impacts of generative AI on assessment
  • Adapt assessment practices to reduce vulnerability to AI

Target Audience: Faculty interested in addressing the challenges posed by generative AI


Promoting Academic Integrity

Objectives:

  • Promote integrity in assessments
  • Discuss biases related to academic integrity
  • Implement strategies to foster academic integrity

Target Audience: Faculty interested in promoting ethical teaching practices

Bootcamp

Interactive Training

Objectives:

  • Learn through interaction between faculty and students
  • Perform self-assessment and apply the skills taught

Tips

Discover innovative strategies for managing your courses in alternative formats, along with practical tips for effective classroom management, to create an engaging and collaborative learning environment.

Understanding and Planning your Course

As a faculty member at Collège Boréal, you’ll rely on your course outline as a key tool at every stage of your teaching.

Start by reviewing its main sections. Then, explore the resources that can help you plan your course effectively.

Course Outline 

The course outline is your starting point for delivering high-quality instruction.

You can find it in Brightspace.

At the beginning of each term, CLIP offers a training session to help you understand the course outline and how it supports your teaching.

Some sections—like the evaluation methods and course schedule—can be updated at your discretion. Follow these steps to edit your outline (French only).

Course Schedule

The course schedule is your roadmap for pacing lessons and organizing content. You can adjust the schedule based on holidays, student needs, or your own teaching approach. Just be sure to keep students informed.

If you’re teaching a CLIP-developed course, where the content, activities, and gradebook come from a master version, you’ll find the schedule or checklist (French only) under the Instructor Guides (French only) tab. You’re also encouraged to use SimpleSyllabus to include key course details like weekly topics and assignment deadlines.

Course Planning

Effective planning helps you manage your time and anticipate your students’ needs. Benefits include:

  • Estimating how long activities will take—and adjusting if needed. Tip: It’s always good to have extra material on hand.
  • Setting clear expectations, which helps keep students engaged.
  • Staying organized and building trust.
  • Minimizing oversights (resources, prior steps).Creating smooth transitions between lessons.

After each class, jot down:

  • How the class responded (participation, motivation).
  • Any challenges you noticed and how long things took.
  • Ideas to improve the next session.

Strategic planning (French only) helps you structure your prep—even if it takes time (reading manuals, preparing course notes, searching online tools, etc.). Use this lesson plan template (French only) to get started.

Learning Activities

Your learning activities should show whether students are meeting the course outcomes. Ask yourself: “What do I want students to be able to DO by the end of this class?”

This will help you:

  • Design activities that assess know-how by applying theoretical concepts.
  • Build tasks that reflect real-life work situations.
  • Connect learning outcomes to future careers so students see the relevance.

Check out this list of activity ideas (French only), plus a sample task (French only) based on a real-world context.

Assessment

Just like learning activities, your assessments should match the course outcomes. Each one is designed to measure specific skills. For example:

  • Multiple-choice questions test memory.

Example: What are the three phases of perception?

  1. Selection, organization, and interpretation
  2. Selection, judgment, and conclusion
  3. Observation, selection, and hypothesis
  • Short-answer questions test both memory and understanding.

Example: What are the three phases of perception? Share a personal example for each.

  • Long-answer questions assess critical thinking.

Example: What strategies can reduce stress in the workplace? Support your answer with three arguments (approx. 1000 words).

  • Activities and tasks test the application of skills and critical thinking.

Rubrics are especially useful for assessing learning activities.Here’s a sample assessment tool (French only).

Course Delivery

Choose a teaching approach that feels right for you—whether it’s using the whiteboard, demonstrating something, or sharing a story. The key is to deliver content in a natural and interesting way, without relying on just one method.

A good PowerPoint presentation can be very effective. But avoid reading from crowded slides—it tends to lose students’ interest. Instead, use visuals, key words, simple graphics, or short media clips to highlight and explain your content.

Need help building a great presentation? The CLIP team is here to support you.

Managing Courses Using Alternative Teaching Modes

Since your courses will be offered in alternative formats, you may need to adapt your teaching methods to meet the targeted learning outcomes where possible.

To support you in this process, CLIP has designed a guide entitled “La gestion d’un cours pendant une situation exceptionnelle” (Managing Courses in Exceptional Situations; French only), along with additional resources to inspire your teaching practices.

Resources:

Classroom Management (Guide Boréal)

The Guide Boréal provides reflections and solutions for effective classroom management. Section 7 outlines the code of conduct and ethics, detailing the expected behaviours for both faculty and students, including:

  • Attendance
  • Internet, email, and telephone use
  • Alcohol and drug use
  • Theft, vandalism, and disruptive behaviour
  • Access to facilities

As a faculty member, you should take the time to familiarize yourself with this document to ensure fair and effective management. Be sure to consider the specific requirements of your sector or team and establish clear guidelines for creating an optimal learning environment.

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